Gradually, bacteria have acquired resistance to antibiotics, predicting a slow but certain return to the preantibiotic era that may bring communicable diseases back as the leading cause of death and, additionally, severely affect the health care system. Based on current development, after a few decades, we may lack functional antibiotics for clinical treatments, emphasizing an urgent need to have alternatives, such as new classes of antimicrobial drugs, improved germ-free protocols, elimination of any kind of contamination in the surgery room, improved robotic surgeries, and novel noninvasive interventions. This forum discusses recent advances in the field of microbial defense mechanisms. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 34, 439-441.
Keywords: antibiotics; antimicrobial drugs; microbial entry; redox signaling.